HYMN. WAKE now, my soul, and humbly hear What thy mild Lord commands; Each word of His will charm thine ear, Hark! how His sweet and tender care They that are merry, let them sing, So mounts the early shrilling lark Sighing out groans and cries. And yet the lark, and yet the dove, Or rather, both should both essay Both grief and joy should sing and pray, Hopes that all present sorrow heal, All glory to the Sacred Three, Beyond the end of days. AMEN. DELI PSALM. ELIVER us, O Lord, from asking of Thee what we cannot receive without danger to ourselves. Deliver us from receiving what we cannot use without offending others, and ruining our own souls. Deliver us from presuming so on Thy bounty that we omit to perform our own duty. Still to our devotions let us join our best endeavours; and make our earth comply with Thy heaven. If we desire of Thee to relieve our necessities, let us faithfully begin to labour with our hands, And not expect a blessing from the clouds on the idle follies of an undisciplined life. If we beg grace for victory over our passions, let us constantly strive to resist their assaults; Let us wisely foresee our particular dangers, and use the proper weapon against every sin. To obtain the gift of chastity we must mortify our senses, and immediately fly the least shadow of temptation. In vain we approach Thy holy altar, if our lives prepare not the way for our offerings. Thou shuttest Thy ears to our loudest prayers, if we open not ours to the voice of the poor. Thou deniest to pardon our trespasses against Thee, unless we have already forgiven our enemies. Oh the extreme benignity of our glorious God, who treats with His creatures upon equal terms ! Who deals no otherwise with us, miserable wretches, than we ourselves commerce with one another. He promises to give the same measure we give our neighbours, and performs incomparably more than He promises Pressed down, and shaken together, and running over into the bosoms of them that love Him. Such, O my God, is the bounty of Thy goodness, and no less the patience of Thy generous hand. |